GaLe Week-forgiveness
by SakuraIchigoDark
Summary: She had forgiven him long ago, but that night still tormented him. "The hardest victory is over one's self." Well... ok maybe there was one thing she couldn't forgive: the theft of her heart.


**Hi, here's just a little something I did for GaLe week. I hope you like it (I know it's late but still...)  
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Forgiveness

_"Suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of mind." ~Aristotle_

Levy had forgiven him long ago. Sure he had hurt and humiliated her, but he had also given her the drive to become stronger, saved her life and taken care of her. Even if he hadn't done all of that Levy didn't doubt that she's have eventually forgiven him anyway, she wasn't, after all, one to hold a grudge, especially if that grudge was against her nakama. Yes, she had accepted him as her nakama before she had forgiven him. It hadn't been that hard for the lilth blunette, she reasoned that if Master had seen some light in the gruff dragon slayer then he wasn't all bad. Everyone in Fairy Tail had a dark past/secret, so in perspective he wasn't that different from everyone else, even if his arrogance said otherwise.

_'He's not that different,'_ She'd tell herself. _'So, why do I get the insensible need to be around him?'_ This, unfortunately, was the cause of all of the script mage's worries. Was she becoming anti-social? No, Gajeel was simply annoying her. Was she to short? No, Gajeel was just incredibly tall. Would she ever finish reading that book? Probably not, with Gajeel taking from her every other minuet. Was her magic depleting? No, she was simply using a lot of it constantly supplying Gajeel with iron -Levy giggled, she sure did spoil that man. Was she too mature? No, Gajeel was simply a child at heart. Was she ill? No, Gajeel simply complemented her. When did Levy figure all of this out? Every waking moment that she had spent with the gruff iron dragon slayer.

Levy looked up from her drink to peer at the man that seemed to fill her thoughts these days. As he emerged from another guild brawl Levy decided that he truly was a child, a slightly sadistic, tall and aggravating child, but a child none-the-less. She sighed happily as she watched him fawn over Lily. Ok maybe there was another reason that assured her that she had forgiven him, she had fallen for him. Yes, she - Levy Mcgarden- had fallen for, the most arrogant, unsophisticated, childish, honest and caring man she had ever met -Gajeel Redfox- and she didn't regret her heart's decision one bit. Sure he had more than his fair share of blood on his hands, but, well, she had already listed some of the reasons why she had forgiven him.

Levy was snapped out of her thoughts by the arrival of said mage. "Not reading today, shrimp?"

"Well I would be, if you hadn't taken away the book I was reading." She growled playfully.

"Not my fault you weren't paying attention." Levy rolled her eyes at that comment.

"Yeah, not paying attention to you." That, was a lie. Levy's attention was always on him, one way or another.

"Well you'll get it back when-"

"You get me another one, because I know you lost it." Levy finished for him. She was quite content with the look plastered onto Gajeel's handsome face. He grumbled something about "Stupid Salamander" before he slipped away to view the jobs on the request board. Levy sighed as she watched him walk away. That was the side of Gajeel that only a select few saw. It was the side that had told her to get stronger and fight him. It was the side that used stupid nicknames. It was the side that taunted and flirted (for lack of a better term) with her. He was so goofy and sincere that, she was almost angry when she discovered one little fact. She gripped her cup with such force that her knuckles turned white. It wasn't fair. She had forgiven him long ago, but he had yet to forgive himself.

She had overheard him and Lily talking one time. He had said that he still had nightmares about what he had done to her all those years ago. He thought that is was a sin to love her and he thought that he didn't deserve someone so beautifully strong. Levy had blushed, despite his tortured tone, at that fact. _"Shorty ain't physically strong."_ Levy had almost fumed at his quick change of subject. _"Her greatest strength is emotional, second and third are probably her mental strength and intelligence. She forgave me before anyone else don't cha know? I'm probably weaker than Tweedledee and Tweedledum in those aspects."_ He had chuckled despite himself at that last point. Levy had quickly left after that before he had figured out that she was listening. And if she didn't believe any of that then she certainly did when she witnessed him thrash and scream at in his sleep one night on a mission. "_Stupid idiot." _She whispered to his sleeping form that night. _"You've got the greatest strength of them all."_ He calmed down when she brushed a stand of raven hair out of his face. _"No one else could be around the item of their pain and still smile like you do." _She then flicked him for his idiocy and muttered that he should hurry up and forgive himself though.

Levy watched as Gajeel walked out of the guild with his new mission. Levy Mcgarden had completely forgiven Gajeel Redfox for everything he had ever done. She told the idiot to come back safe. A sneaky blush painted her face scarlet when he smiled in return.

Well, there was probably one thing, little Levy could never forgive him for: Stealing her heart.

But she would probably forgive him for that too, eventually. After all it's hard not to forgive the person you love more than anything.


End file.
